The first results night of the year, and the first “Progress”, proved popular – the hall was packed – and lived up to its billing: terrific photography in both A and B sections, of great variety and mostly hitherto unseen at the club. Plus entertainment, interest and enjoyment aplenty. To cap it all, our stand-in judge, Gerry Adcock from Hexham & District PA and the NCPF did a great job of commentary and selection. Was there ever a more relaxed, genial and good humoured exponent of the judging art?! Come back soon Gerald!

Results to follow soon

Annual Awards Presentation Dinner

Bowburn Hall Hotel, tomorrow Friday 16th February with the start time of 7.30 for 8.00 pm

Bring along raffle prizes, including the unexpected and quirky, and create the biggest raffle of all time!

Doors actually open at 7.00 so early birds can come along from then to chat and perhaps help with setting up

A great time is expected to be had by all, including a new twist event wise from Angy as well as the humongous raffle, good food and presentation of trophies, all beautifully engraved with winners’ names.

… and the 2018 Vice President’s Award for exceptional service to the Society will be announced by VEEP Dave Murrell

Check out the Archives page for All Trophy Winners from 1950 to 2017 and Vice Presidents’ Awards from 1989 to 2017 and more here

Assignments 2018

Pictures from the January Assignment are on the DPS Facebook Group page

The second Assignment 2018 is to Beamish, Living Museum of the North. This coincides with the Queens of Machines event. This Saturday 17th February meeting at 10.00 a.m in the entrance cafe area. All members welcome

The NCPF Annuals are now open for entries. See earlier NewsBlg from External Competitions Secretary Tony Mearman. Closing date 1st March. Details and entry form are on the NCPF website here

The NCPF Club Championship is this Sunday 18th February at Clara Vale Village Hall NE40 3SY. 20 prints and 20 PDI have been entered (see list on the notice board. Come along and cheer DPS on! All members welcome. More information is on the DPS Facebook group and earlier NewsBlog

SNAP n CHAT #10

Finchale Priory Tuesday 27th February 10.30 am. See earlier NewsBlog. All members can be SNAP n CHATTERS! For images, check out SNAP n CHAT #9 in Gallerieshere

Spring Lake District Photography Weekend

New! The Jeff Teasdale Lakes Experience moves from Autumn to Springtime – 25th to 27th May, staying at the Blencathra Centre. Jeff is taking bookings from now. There is a booking form with all the information you need at the club

2018 Membership – no increase in fees for 2018!

Check out Programme Secretary Paul Ritchie’s great programme of events on the Programme page

New members are very welcome and several have joined already. You don’t have to pay up on your first night. You can learn all about us on the About page. Write to our President Peter Walton if you would like to know more via the Contact page

Durham PS Photography Challenge 2018

Intriguing objects for this year are see-through glass mannequin heads. Members can borrow one for a week at a time and use their photography skills to include them in photographs. Please return the following week. Chances are you’ll get another turn if not more if need be

There will be a members’ night showing your favourite results via the DPS Big Screen Experience: 15th November – The Society Challenge, Your Images on View

Images from the 2016 Crystal Ball Challenge are in a newly restored gallery here

DPS Botanic Garden Exhibition

This annual DPS event will be for the month of May this year. Hon Life Member Don Bennett DPAGB is organising. Room for 47 prints in 20×16 inch mounts which need to be in by 29th March. Sign up on the notice board to secure a place

Annual Exhibition Durham Cathedral

Theme is “Co Durham Heritage” which can include Tyne, Tees, Northumberland and Cumbria. The show will be in the glorious North Isle of the Cathedral and on for the month of August

Hot Dates Blogger Mike Boult has been posting a fantastic array of events, dates and links of interest to photographers for Hot Dates 2018 for which we are all grateful. Email Mike (address in your printed Programme) if you have more.

New for this year: Peter Walton’s set subject for the Fillingham Trophy is “The Moment”, and for the Sterling Award PDI, “Humour” … and 5 on a theme (rather than 5 or 6) in the Hon Members Cup (prints) and Digital Trophy (PDI). Details on the Competitions page and in your printed programme

Programme Change

April 5th – Alan McCormick has had to postpone because of an operation. Instead, Programme Secretary Paul Ritchie is organising a Members Night – five members, 15 minutes or so each. Priority is new members and those who have not shown their work on Members Nights previously. Contact Paul to book your place. Email address is in your printed programme

Club Laptop for Sale

We have a new, high spec laptop for projecting digital images. Our Sony Viao is for sale to one lucky member via sealed bids to General Secretary Mike Boult

Next Meeting: Thursday 22nd February

The Photo Memories Organisation with Nostalgic Views of the North

Pictured: Joe Grabham’s Welcome to the Funny Farm that scored highly in the 2017 Championship (more 2017 results here and more in Archives here)

Less than three weeks to go! Morpeth Camera Club’s Big Event will take place on Tuesday 6th March 2018 and features acclaimed photographers Gwen & Phil Charnock, with ‘A Life of Photography’. This will be a very memorable evening of excellent photography for sure

Just as the seventeen 2017 competition trophies are about to be presented to the winners at the Annual Awards Presentation dinner this Friday 16th, the new season kicks off in earnest with the first of three Progress PDI competitions results nights. Judges are the very well known duo, Alan McCormick LRPS for the “A” section and Mavis McCormick LRPS for the “B”

If you like great pictures, insightful commentary, excitement, suspense and drama … don’t miss!

This competition is open for all clubs in the Northern Counties Photographic Federation, each club submitting 20 prints and 20 PDIs. Three judges will be awarding points for each image and the winning 2 clubs from the print and PDI sections will represent the NCPF at PAGB National competitions at Warwick and Blackburn later in the year.

Around 40 clubs will be represented with approximately 1600 pictures being assessed and scored by the judges.

This is a great opportunity to see some of the finest examples of club photography in the North of England and members are invited to come along and support DPS and meet with fellow photographers from across the region

See you there!

Pictured: Focussed on the Win by Stephen Bell CPAGB and Valentino Rossi MotoGP by Michael Watson – both did well in last year’s Championship

From Tony Mearman LRPS CPAGB AFIAP

Closing date Thursday 1st March

The NCPF Annual Competitions together make up the Federation’s “big event” of the year. They are a chance for individuals to shine and there are many trophies on offer, including those for best portrait, best landscape, best nature and best creative images. Prints and PDIs can be entered and there is even a section for Beginners. Our selection teams will also pick out some pictures to represent the club in Colour and Mono Prints and in PDI (there are trophies for “best club” too) – but it’s important to remember that all pictures that are entered will be judged and all pictures entered will have a chance of gaining awards.

So start sorting out your best pictures – prints and PDI – from the last year or so. It’s your opportunity to become “best in the Northern Counties”!

Prints:

Maximum entry of 3 mono and 3 colour prints per person

PDIs:

Maximum entry of 3 PDIs per person

Please send your PDIs and digital copies of the prints to tonymearman(at)hotmail.com

The next meeting of snap n chatters will be Tuesday 27th February at Finchale Priory at 10:30am.

There will be lots of different photo opportunities on the banks of the River Wear, a beautiful wooded setting, or among the extensive remains of Finchale Priory itself. It could be Macro in the woods, have yourself a challenge/theme such as Textures/leaves/detail/pathways etc .

It was an outstanding presentation from Roger Coulam – and it certainly made you think. Kicking off with stupendous storm images, from Seaham Pier to right across the USA from his storm chasing days – they were breathtaking in colossal scale and danger.

Then followed superb documentary work, particularly from the Sunderland International Air Show, which has been a long term project. And it was the throngs of fabulous people, “a mad melting pot”, rather than the flying aircraft that featured. And the sheer amount of on the ground military imagery and artefacts in amongst the happy families … that made you think all right

Next we saw pictures from another long term project – the still highly polluted Blast Beach – and we were introduced to the huge collection of found objects that Roger has flat-bed scanned and made into extraordinarily beautiful “Pictograph” panels. Many of these undoubted works of art will be at the Side Gallery 17th to 26th March

Altogether, another great night at Durham PS that truly lived up to its billing and gave us food for thought:

“Stop and take in the experience”

“Listen to how you feel”

“Acknowledge your influences”

Many will have been influenced by Roger Coulam’s work and philosophy. Inspirational!

New! The Jeff Teasdale Lakes Experience moves to Springtime – 25th to 27th May, staying at the ever popular Blencathra Centre. Jeff is taking bookings from now. There is a booking form with all the information you need at the club

2018 Membership – no increase in fees for 2018!

Amazing value at only £40 for the year, £20 half year and £20 for Juniors, Students and Overseas members. Check out Programme Secretary Paul Ritchie’s great programme of events on the Programme page

New members are very welcome. You don’t have to pay up on your first night. You can learn all about us on the About page. Write to our President Peter Walton if you would like to know more via the Contact page

Annual Awards Presentation Dinner

Bowburn Hall Hotel, Friday 16th February – at this late stage email Mike Boult if you’d like to attend

Note: the 2018 Vice President’s Award for exceptional service to the Society will be announced by Dave Murrell

SNAP n CHAT #9

First outing in 2018 was to Newcastle Quayside at Night on Wednesday (Super Moon night). There was a high turnout of members and stunning photography produced. Check out SNAP n CHAT #9 (prepare to be amazed) in Gallerieshere

Assignments 2018

Pictures from the January Assignment are on the DPS Facebook Group page – members can go to Photos, Albums and January 2018 to view

The second all new Assignment is to Beamish, Living Museum of the North. This coincides with the Queens of Machines event. Saturday 17th February meeting at 10.00 am in the entrance cafe area. All members welcome

Intriguing objects for this year are see-through glass mannequin heads. Members can borrow one for a week at a time and use their photography skills to include them in photographs. Please return the following week. Chances are you’ll get another turn if not more if need be

There will be a members’ night showing your favourite results via the DPS Big Screen Experience, 15th November – The Society Challenge, Your Images on View

Images from the 2016 Crystal Ball Challenge are in a newly restored gallery here

DPS Botanic Garden Exhibition

This annual DPS event will be for the month of May this year. Hon Life Member Don Bennett DPAGB is organising. Room for 47 prints in 20×16 inch mounts which need to be in by 29th March. Sign up on the notice board to secure a place

Hot Dates

Coming next week – 16th and 17th February – Fire & Ice, Durham City. Hot Dates Blogger Mike Boult has been posting a fantastic array of events, dates and links of interest to photographers for Hot Dates 2018 for which we are all grateful. Email Mike (address in your printed Programme) if you have more.

New for this year: Peter Walton’s set subject for the Fillingham Trophy is “The Moment”, and for the Sterling Award PDI, “Humour” … and 5 on a theme (rather than 5 or 6) in the Hon Members Cup (prints) and Digital Trophy (PDI). Details on the Competitions page and in your printed programme

Programme Change

April 5th – Alan McCormick has had to postpone because of an operation. Instead, Programme Secretary Paul Ritchie is organising a Members Night – five members, 15 minutes or so each. Priority is new members and those who have not shown their work on Members Nights previously. Contact Paul to book your place. Email address is in your printed programme

NCPF Competitions

The NCPF Annuals are now open for entries. Details are on the NCPF website here

The NCPF Club Championship is Sunday 18th February, all members welcome. More information is on the DPS Facebook group and will follow on this site soon

Next Meeting: Thursday 15th February

It’s the first competition results night of the year – 1st Progress Projected Digital Images. In a new innovation, judges are a Mr & Mrs … Alan and Mavis McCormick. Fresh new images, interesting judges’ commentary, excitement, drama … it’s got the lot!

In the search for photographs for their 2019 calendar and Christmas cards, St Cuthbert’s Hospice has combined with the Facebook group I Love Durham. Top notch photographs of Co Durham and especially City of Durham taken through the seasons are the aim. Entries close 10pm 28th February.